My own books: a year of bookkeeping from bank statements

The job

My business books are simple: no payroll, a handful of accounts. Even so, sorting every transaction each month is the kind of repeat work that eats an evening.

What I built

• A small local database for my own books, loaded from exported bank and card statements.
• The AI sorts each transaction, and saved rules handle the ones that repeat.
• Every statement is balanced against the bank before it counts.

What changed

• As of October 2026: 40 statements balanced and 437 transactions loaded.
• In a check in mid-October, 243 of 312 transactions (78%) had been sorted by a saved rule or by the AI.
• When I first checked its work, I would have put it at 80 to 95% right out of the box. I corrected the rest by hand.

What stayed in human hands

An accountant still reviews and files my annual return. That is the point for accounting and financial firms: the sorting moves to AI, the judgment stays with the professional.

Honest limits

These are simple books. A business with payroll, inventory or many entities is a bigger job.

Written by Devan Borsboom. Client names and identifying details (city, team size and anything specific enough to place them) are left out on purpose.